Meet the 2019 One Book Candidates

One Book, One Community Organizers Seek Public Votes for 2019 Book!

by Guest Blogger Karen HostetterRed Land Community Library Branch Manager

Karen Hostetter

One Book, One Community (OBOC) organizers are once again asking the public to vote for next year’s book selection! The public vote initiative is a way to invite community involvement in the selection of the title, rather than handing over a single title each year. This year there will be five titles on the ballot. The 2019 OBOC regional campaign represents collaboration between 40 libraries in four counties: Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry and York.

How the voting works…

From a ballot with five book titles that made the final grade by the Book Selection committee, the public is asked to pick one of the five books that they would be interested in reading and discussing in 2019. To vote, go to www.oboc.org to access an online ballot. For those who wish to fill out a paper ballot, simply go to a participating library to cast your vote.

One Book, Your Vote for the OBOC 2019 title will take place August 1 – 31, 2018. The winner will be announced to the public in November 2018. With the public vote for the 2019 title, reading of the OBOC title will take place in January, and programs at the public libraries will begin in February, which is designated as both Library Lovers’ Month and Book Lovers’ Month. Multiple copies of the winning title will be available at your local public library beginning in January 2019.

Meet the Candidates

Five deaths in a Minnesota small town in the summer of 1961 shock the inhabitants. The narrator Frank Drum (aged 13) and his younger brother Jake have a personal stake in solving the murder of their beloved and musically talented older sister, Ariel. The town wants to blame an outsider, or a rich boy, or the local bad boy. This luminous story of coming of age and family explores racism, conscience, faith and the pain of loss in ordinary lives.

A captivating page-turner; Ginny Moon is an extremely engaging book written from a unique perspective. The story, presented through the language, vision and emotions of a teenage girl with autism offers the reader the opportunity to share Ginny’s journey by means of her personal reality. Ludwig’s writing opens a door to allow readers to experience an existence that is unknown to most of us. It is an exceptional, quirky and unforgettable story that is at times heart-warming and other times heart-breaking. Ginny Moon is a “must read” book – charming, poignant and original. Benjamin Ludwig balances themes of autism, abuse and adoption with insight and focus.

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea is the truly miraculous story of one woman’s journey to safety from her home in Syria. Even as civil war is tearing her country apart and people are fleeing, Doaa Al Zamel is determined to remain and fight. Eventually it becomes far too unsafe for Doaa’s family to stay in Syria so they flee to Egypt with plans to return home after the war. When the situation in Egypt turns hostile to immigrants, Doaa and her fiancé pay smugglers to take them Europe. This turns out to be even more dangerous than everything she has already endured. Doaa’s story shows us all the complexity of being a refugee and the resilience of a woman determined to help her family stay alive.

Between 1920 and 1924 nearly two dozen people were murdered on the Osage tribal lands in Oklahoma, both tribe members and white investigators died, becoming what was known as the Osage of Reign of Terror. Why these murders occurred soon became one of J. Edgar Hoover’s first tests for his young Federal Bureau of Investigation. What was the primary reason for this bloody time? Oil under the Osage territories had made the tribe members the richest people per capita in the world, taking in nearly $400 million in today’s dollars, as well as targets for rampant greed and senseless violence.Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and Birth of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by David Gann thoroughly explores this tragic, little known and shameful piece of modern United States history.

Starr Carter lives in two worlds. Those two worlds clash when she witnesses the shooting of her childhood friend at the hands of a police officer. His death becomes a national headline with people on both sides of the issue. But Starr was the only witness. She must decide whether to stay silent or speak, with the repercussions of both sending waves through her community. The Hate U Give is a must read.

It is not necessary to read or have read these titles to place your vote!